First established as a normal school, SUNY at Oswego can point to a heritage of college teachers who have shared their passion for their subjects with future teachers. In Oswego: Fountainhead of Teacher Education (Dorothy Rogers's history of the early years of our university) this tradition is evident in such documents as an 1893 picture of Caroline Scales reading classics to attentive students in the Welland Hotel, and, in 1896, a student's praise for Dr. Mary V. Lee, who taught "the wonders of animal anatomy," to cite only two examples. Dr. Lee herself perhaps captured this passion for knowledge best when she described her own intellectual awakening: "I can remember just the hour when the endless wish to know awoke -that divine energy which urges us to mingle with the greater world without." Although Oswego today is no longer a normal school, the College of Arts and Sciences, collaborating with the School of Education, continues to offer many things to future teachers academic skills and knowledge, and the humane benefits of a liberal education. But our greatest aspiration is to evoke and sustain in future teachers this "endless wish to know." Of course, we strive to do this for all of our students: that is, after all, perhaps the greatest benefit of a higher education. But it is especially important that teachers leave Oswego with the motivation and the background to be passionate learners throughout their teaching careers.
Departments and faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences have pursued this aspiration through a number of innovative programs. Recently, the departments of Chemistry and Art helped to implement Masters in Teaching degrees to serve college graduates who wish to become teachers, and several other departments are planning to do the same. This year, in response to changed regulations for New York State certification of teachers, the disciplinary components of all of the programs for prospective teachers were revised and expanded to ensure that every student receives a solid grounding in a content area-and the motivation to continue to explore and grow in his or her area of interest, whether it be in Mathematics or the Sciences, English literature, Foreign Languages, or Social Studies. In addition, a variety of courses and projects immerse teachers-to-be or practicing teachers in content areas. For many years, Dr. Roger Hinrichs, the Chair of the Department of Physics, and Dr. Carl Salvagin, Professor of Technology, have offered an Energy Institute to Physics and Technology teachers from around the state. Recently, Dr. Al Stamm, Professor of Meteorology, with several other faculty members, received a grant from the National Science Foundation to support a project that will involve high school teachers in meteorological research: these teachers will in turn perform similar research with their own students. (See his article in this newsletter.) Our faculty have undertaken these efforts, and many others that I have not described, in recognition that it is important that teachers be expert in what they teach, and able to convey that to their students.
Across the nation, educators and commentators now acknowledge that the preparation of teachers is best when their training in the skills and background for teaching is closely tied to their study in their fields of expertise - and when the faculty in schools and departments of education work closely with the faculty in arts and sciences to accomplish this. Last Fall, Dr. Linda Rae Markert, Dean of the School of Education, and I attended a conference on Collaboration in Teacher Preparation, where faculty and administrators from around the nation described ways in which faculty in Education and Arts and Sciences are collaborating in innovative teacher preparation programs. A recent report of the American Council on Education, To Touch the Future: Transforming the Way Teachers are Taught (1999), argues, "The responsibility for preparing prospective teachers in the subject areas they will teach rests not only with school of education faculty but also with faculty of the institution as a whole - especially the arts and sciences faculty." In recognition of the principle that teacher preparation is an institution-wide responsibility, Provost John Presley has asked Dean Markert and me to establish a Professional Education Council, made up of faculty from the School of Education and Arts and Sciences, and teachers from the field. This new organization will consider such issues as new and revised programs for future teachers, and the role of faculty, including Arts and Sciences faculty, in professional development programs in area schools. The Professional Education Council will be a forum in which faculty in Arts and Sciences and faculty in Education work together to ensure that our future teachers will be, like Chaucer's scholar, devoted and skillful learners and teachers. We anticipate that it will become a catalyst for further "transformations in the way teachers are taught" at Oswego.